The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges that "progress made in the last 15 years has been uneven, particularly in Africa where some MDGs remained out of track" and reiterates the need to focus on this continent.

Under target 4.b, the Agenda highlights the necessity "to substantially expand at global level the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrollment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes".

It is also committed, as target 9.a reads, to "facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island developing States.

Whereas, target 10.b calls to encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes".

CSD-17 negotiated policy recommendations for most of the issues under discussion.

Delegates adopted by acclamation a “Text as prepared by the Chair,” including all negotiated text as well as proposed language from the Chair for policy options and practical measures to expedite implementation of the issues under the cluster.

The text included rising food prices, ongoing negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the Doha Development Round, and an international focus on the climate change negotiations under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As far as CSD-16 is concerned, on this occasion delegates were called to review implementation of the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation and the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the CSD-13 decisions on water and sanitation.

A High-level Segment was also held from 14-16 May, with nearly 60 ministers in attendance.

Known as the outcome document of the UN International Conference on Financing for Development held n Monterrey in 2002, the Monterrey Consensus has become, since its adoption, the major reference for international development cooperation.

The document embraces six areas of Financing for Development:

1) mobilization of domestic financial resources for development,

2) mobilization of international resources for development: foreign direct investment and other private flows.

3) International Trade as an engine for development.

4) increase of international financial and technical cooperation for development.

5) external debt.

6) addressing of systemic issues: enhancing the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems in support of development.

For the United Nations, Africa has always been a priority area, as illustrated by the reference to Africa's sustainable development as a cross-cutting issue in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation which emerged from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

Adopted at the 37th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia,
the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is an economic development program of the African Union aimed at ensuring an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries.

Launched in 1996, the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) was implemented in 1999 as the result of a comprehensive review undergone by the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including public consultations.

The Initiative’s debt-burden thresholds were adjusted downward, which enabled a broader group of countries to qualify for larger volumes of debt relief.

Moreover, a number of creditors, including the main multi laterals, started to provide earlier assistance to qualifying countries in the form of interim relief at decision point.

Finally, the “floating completion point” was introduced, providing incentives to speed up reforms and increase country ownership.

Stating the MDG Report 2015, "Africa made great strides towards the eight Millennium Development Goals. In many areas, especially related to health and education, the advance registered by Sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest among all developing regions. At the same time, the Northern part of the continent met many of the targets, including those on poverty and hunger reduction, universal primary education, children and mothers' health, as well as sanitation."

Nevertheless, many goals and targets have yet to be achieved:

In spite of the fact that the child mortality rate in Sub- Saharan Africa declined five times faster during 2005-2013 than it was 1990-1995, the region still detains the highest rate.

Furthermore, 70% of its population still suffers from lack of access to improved sanitation facility, 41% of its inhabitants still live, in 2015, with less than $1.25 a day and out of the 57 million of global out-of-school children of primary school age in 2015, 33 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the past two decades, Northern Africa has not registered any improvements in women’s access to paid employment, with women still holding less than one out of five paid jobs in the non-agricultural sector.

Therefore, the Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges that "progress made in the last 15 years has been uneven, particularly in Africa where some MDGs remained out of track " and reiterates the need to focus on this continent, by "recommitting ourselves to the full realization of all the MDGs, including the off-track MDGs, in particular by providing focused and scaled-up assistance to least developed countries and other countries in special situations, in line with relevant support programmes. The new Agenda builds on the Millennium Development Goals and seeks to complete what these did not achieve, particularly in reaching the most vulnerable."

In its target 4.b, the Agenda highlights the necessity "to substantially expand at global level the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrollment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes".

It is also committed, in its target 9.a, to "facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island developing States. Whereas, it its target 10.b it calls to encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes".

Furthermore, only 15% of the Sub-Saharan African rural population had access to electricity in 2012 and the continent sorely lacks important infrastructure investments. The absence of access to modern energy services is a grave obstacle to sustainable development, as recognized by the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Initiative and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, and contributes greatly to Africa’s poverty trap.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), launched by African heads of state in 2001, has represented the response of African countries to those treats and challenges. NEPAD has indeed aimed at providing a framework for sustainable development to be shared by all Africa's people, emphasizing the role of partnerships among African countries themselves and between them and the international community, and proposed a shared and common vision to eradicate poverty through sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

African governments also reinforced the pace of regional integration through the rationalization of existing regional economic communities, increasing the power of the African Union, especially in the field of security and peace management.

These efforts have been supported by the international community, with financial and technical contributions to regional communities and specific initiatives to foster African development. Thus, the Heavily Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) program was initiated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1996, providing debt relief and low-interest loans to reduce external debt repayments to sustainable levels. Nominal debt service relief under HIPC to the 29 countries that have reached their decision points has been estimated to amount to about US$62 billion, a significant share of which benefited Sub-Saharan African countries.